Words
by mecca-boyde
Summary: A series of one shots based off a random word generator. BBXRae-centric.
1. Chapter 1

**Neck**

Hero uniforms usually fall into two extremes: ones that show a lot of skin and ones that show almost none. Raven's costume fell into the latter (unless you counted the occasional glimpse of her legs the costume afforded), which he'd always figured was neither a good nor bad thing. But as the Titans stood awkwardly in their civilian formal wear, posing for photos and making small talk at Jump City's annual Gala event, Garfield's eyes kept zooming back to the pale shoulders of the girl in his peripheral vision. Raven was had always been petite, but she'd never seemed _delicate_; perhaps it was the cloak and hood she favored that gave her a more stalwart appearance on a day to day basis. But now, in her strapless, navy blue gown, she looked so tiny, so _feminine_. Her neck was slim, elegant and her collarbone branched out smoothly, sloping down in a distinctly un-masculine way.

She caught him staring and blushed, feigning indifference he knew she didn't feel.

**Corrupt**

The idea that she could corrupt people had long since been banished from Raven's conscious mind. She was not her father; powers or not she had determined that she herself was a far cry from evil and could have no negative influence on a person without effort on her part.

Still, when she felt the angry pulse around him when she was confronted by another male; when his pangs of remorse shot through her mind at her dismissial of his good intentions; and when his dark longings interrupted her dreams, Raven wondered if she had, in fact, corrupted Garfield Logan.

**Carry**

Like the stereotypical vegan he was, Beast Boy was thin. Over the years he'd gained a few inches on herself, but the awkward, gawky appearance of his body was only exacerbated. Slim hips, wiry chest, large, disproportionate hands and feet. A wishbone-shaped back that started small and branched out as it reached his neck. A beautiful back. And a beautiful back_side_ to match, one that looked even better as he climbed the flight of stares ahead of her, arms full of grocery bags. Yes, he'd be so awkward looking, Raven thought, if he wasn't so godamn beautiful.


	2. Chapter 2

Mutual

H was perched on the edge of the tower, about to take flight, when he heard the door to the roof creak open. The ever-present breeze that surrounded the island carried the visitor's scent to him, informing him of who had just arrived.

"You're going to fly over the city again."

It wasn't a question, and he didn't give them an answer. They continued.

"I know you don't go every night but…it's still not healthy, Beast Boy. You can't keep doing this."

"You done?" he questioned coldly, his back still to the speaker.

"N-no. I just…" they seemed unsure of how to proceed, "I know how you-"

"Feel?" Beast Boy finally whipped around to face the wide-eyed girl behind him. He jumped down from the edge, giving her a heavy glare. "Is that what you were going to say? You know how I _feel_? _You_ know how I _feel? _Give me a break!"

"Look," the girl said, seeming to have gathered her wits about her once more, "I didn't come here to argue. I just-"

"Wanted to tell me how stupid I'm being? Scold me? Make me feel like shit?"

"…No, I-"

"Goddammit just shut up!" The girl unconsciously curled inwards and took at step back as he marched up to her. "I don't want to hear whatever you have to say. You don't GET IT." He turned back to the horizon.

"…Please, Beas-"

"I fucking hate you!"

He turned back around, fists clenched, words spewing forth like fire. He felt hot and angry and embarrassed for having been caught doing what he knew he shouldn't be doing. He wanted nothing more than to fight her, hear her yell back, justify his actions.

But she remained silent. Her hood had fallen back, exposing her shocked, pale face to his angry eyes.

"What? No witty comeback? No 'The feelings mutual.'?" The anger was rapidly disappating, but he wasn't willing to back down yet.

"…No," she finally spoke, her voice catching in her throat, "because…it's not."

And she became a shadow, falling through the ground, but not before, to his utter shock, he saw her beautiful face crumple.

Disproportionate, part 1

Beast Boy had awkwardly large hands and feet. Raven couldn't fathom how or why she picked up on this, but every time the boy motioned with a hand when he spoke her eyes were immediately drawn to the paw that he was waving about. When he handed her something at the dinner table or propped his feet up on the coffee table she immediately thought of how disproportionate they looked on his gawky frame.

Disproportionate, part 2

Raven had a very full upper lip. Beast Boy wasn't sure when or why he noticed it, but the fact remained that he top lip was considerably larger than her bottom (which was saying something, since her bottom lip wasn't thin at all). Whenever she spoke his eyes shot to her mouth immediately, something he was attempting to correct.


	3. Comparison

Cyborg always thought it must be difficult for Raven, being friends with Starfire. Not because Star had any negative personality quirks; unerring optimism aside, she was everything a person wanted in a friend. He watched the relationship between the two morph, from one-sided admiration and mild annoyance to mutual understanding and respect to a loving bond between sisters. They loved one another in a way that only two girls could, two beings of estrogen in a testosterone-dominated world. But it was more than that; they understood what it was like to live in a world so completely different from your upbringing. Raven hid it well (and certainly had more experience with Earthly culture) but the truth was she had barely spent anymore time on this planet than Star had. The boys, varied pasts aside, had all been born and raised on Earth and could never relate to either girl on that level.

The two could often be heard conversing in foreign languages or discussing one cultural peculiarity or another. Raven explained many of Earth's more baffling phenomenon, though she herself couldn't fathom the reasons behind some ("But I _still_ don't understand why it is acceptable to wear such revealing clothing at the beach but not in other venues." "That one's still lost on me too.") and Starfire was able to keep Raven fluent in all her languages, as well as add new ones to the growing list (how Star was able to attain all those languages, however, was something Cyborg would not dwell upon). They each drew comfort in the other's mutual alien status and from this grew a strong bond of friendship that went beyond simple understanding.

Still, all this aside, Cyborg still sometimes felt a pang of pity for his dark-haired pseudo-sister. Because he couldn't imagine it was too fun to be constantly in Starfire's shadow. The public loved Starfire; she had fanclubs and admirers. Every time the team left the tower she was approached by one young man or another (and some not-so-young men that needed pulled aside by himself) and little girls who wanted to be her and older girls who wanted to look like her. She was admired both for her heroism and good-nature as well as her beauty. Cyborg could never see her as more than his sweet, slightly eccentric little sister, but he openly admitted that she was gorgeous. And a very obvious type of gorgeous as well. She was tallish, thin-but-athletic, tan, and with all that hair and a pretty face she had all the makings of a model.

If high school had taught him anything, it was that girls mercilessly compared themselves to one another, and he doubted that Raven was any exception. He didn't believe she was jealous of Starfire; she was too mature and good-natured (albeit begrudgingly so) for any sort of envy to taint her relationship with the princess. But as the only other female member of the team she was constantly compared and contrasted (mostly the latter) to the other girl, and the majority of the time she ended up in Star's shadow, quietly basking in the girl's glow. It wasn't that Raven was unattractive (far from it, if the sideways glances of a fellow teammate were any indication), but her beauty was less obvious than Star's. Her fair skin and unique coloring, not to mention her softer, more fragile form (though she certainly could never be called fragile) would have been the pinnacle of beauty...a century or two ago. She also downplayed many of her more feminine characteristics, most likely as to not appear 'weak' or 'fragile.' He remembered the first time he saw her without her cloak and hood, legs drawn up to her chest and eyes wide as she asked him about various equipment in the medical bay. They'd just gotten back from a run-in with the H.I.V.E. Five and Mammoth had left her cloak in tatters and her wrist sprained. She'd healed it herself, but he'd insisted he look it over himself to be safe. She sat on one of the infirmary beds after he finished and questioned him about some of the more advanced technology, and when she tilted her head and tucked her hair behind her ear he was struck by how pretty she really was.

He'd considered telling her, throwing her a compliment he doubted she had ever received, but he didn't think she'd appreciated it so soon into their friendship. Besides, not thirty seconds later Robin had walked in for an update and she'd immediately sobered her expression and adjusted herself to a more dignified posture, effectively replacing the tiny, pretty songbird with her stoic namesake once more.

Still, she deserved more attention than she got from the media and public. She was never one to put much stock in the opinions of others, especially those who only knew her based off the 5o'clock news, but Cyborg thought she still might like a little (keyword: little) attention now and then.

It was for this reason that when Cyborg noticed the paparazzi covertly taking pictures of the team as they hung out at the beach, he didn't say anything. And the next day, when the cover of the local gossip magazine featured his dark-haired teammate in her blue bikini and sunglasses with the caption "The Hottest Beach Bodies" he may have broken one of the unspoken rules of the tower and brought home a copy and threw it on the coffee table.

[Disclamer: I own nothing anybody would want. ]


	4. Dislike

Each of the Titans harbored an intense dislike of Slade, but for different reasons.

Robin obsessed over Slade because he always seemed to be one step ahead of the boy, a constant reminder of his own shortcomings as a human. He did not possess powers like his teammates; he couldn't use dark energy or hurl buses at oncoming enemies or change his form. He relied on his brilliant tactical mind to overpower his opponents, and Slade was someone who often couldn't be out maneuvered. Whenever Robin failed to outwit the man it was proof that he was just a human boy trying to do inhuman things, a fact he didn't want to face. His dislike manifested itself in obsession, tracing each possible tactic Slade could take and trying to get to him first.

Starfire and Cyborg had less consuming dislike of the man. They hated how he had outwitted them time and time again, caused harm to their city and to their team. They disliked him because he was their opponent, someone who wanted them dead and would go to fantastic lengths to do so. They wanted peace and justice, but most of all, they wanted their family safe.

Raven disliked Slade because he had made her feel powerless. Sometimes, when she remembered the fear she felt as he pursued her, as he grabbed her and forced her submission, as he burned her skin and reduced her clothing to shreds...sometimes she felt the bile rise in her throat. The memory of his voice, breath on the back of her neck, bringing to the forefront of her consciousness the destruction she would cause, still haunted her. While the others wanted peace and justice, she simply wanted their paths to never cross again.

Beast Boy absolutely hated Slade. Simply disliking the man was not enough; he _detested_ his. It began with his manipulation of their leader. The jeopardy it put his new family in had distressed him, particularly when be began to taunt Robin, driving the boy into his raving madness. Slade endangered the stability of his team, his rag-tag family, and he soon harbored much resentment towards the man, though he hid it well.

Then Terra came along and his anger increased as Slade first coerced the girl into betraying them, once again putting his family at risk, and then doubled when she sacrificed her own life to end his. The man had almost taken all that was dear to him, had succeeded in taking a big part of it, but the bubbling hatred that had formed was pushed aside for the mourning that followed the death of a loved one.

And then he returned. The anger at seeing him alive (or appearing so, at the time) abruptly brought the hatred to the forefront of his consciousness, but he pushed it back as best he could. But when Raven came to them after the fight he felt the dark, dormant piece of him inside stir and howl. She'd stood before them all, head hanging low, ashamed. His gutt clenched painfully as he took in her tattered uniform, her fair skin exposed, scrapped and cut in several places. He almost audibly growled as he noticed the large, hand-sized bruises on her wrists and shoulders. He didn't know how her hair had grown nor how she'd ended up stopping time itself, and none of that mattered at the time. He only felt the absolute hatred for the man who had reduced his strong, confident friend to the fragile girl standing in front of him.

It was at this point that Beast Boy realized he didn't want to exact justice from Slade, or peace, or even revenge. Put quite simply, he wanted Slade dead.

[Two in one night? This one was a little odd. I probably could've explored Cyborg and Starfire a lot more, I know.]


	5. 5

**Leg**

"Has anyone ever told you you've got a nice pair of legs, girly?"

Raven would have promptly hurled one of the steel beams lying around the construction site at Johnny Rancid, except a full grown raptor had already hurled _itself_, leaving her with nothing to do but fight the rubbery feeling that had suddenly overtaken the aformentioned legs.

Smooth

They didn't _always_ fight; sometimes they got along. And not just 'when it mattered,' like when Malchior betrayed her or he couldn't control the darkness inside him. Sometimes it was just little times, like when Raven had walked into the kitchen on a lazy afternoon to find him measuring out flour in a mixing bowl. When she went to the cupboard to grab her usual box of tea he politely asked if she could grab him the baking soda. She'd done so and since he didn't seem to be in an overly energetic mood, she asked what he was making. He said vegan brownies. She asked what was the difference between regular and vegan brownies, besides, of course, the lack of animal products. He pointed out a few unusual ingredients and half an hour later they were seated at the kitchen counter licking a bowl of brownie batter.

Or sometimes they would play chess. Even if she was quite good he wasn't terrible and having to concentrate kept him focused. Or she'd ask him to teach her a little bit of Swahili, something she was quite anxious to learn, and he'd explain (in a way that only he could) about the eighteen noun classes and how to use adjectives. And once in a while they would just be in the same room together, not necessarily doing anything with one another but present.

So while they didn't have the most _natural_ friendship, they_ did_ have one.


End file.
